Craig Silvey was born in 1982. He grew up at Dwellingup in the south-west of Western Australia. He is an Australian novelist and musician. Since his release of his debut novel, Rhubarb, Silvey was named as one of The Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Novelists. Silvey says of his literary influences that "I've always been attracted to Southern Gothic fiction. There's something very warm and generous about those regional American writers like Twain and Lee and Capote, and it seemed to be a literary ilk that would lend itself well to the Australian condition."